Supersonic, a newly established Internet Service Provider (ISP), intends to be the largest ISP in the country within the next 5 years.

The fibre provider is 100% owned by MTN.

MTN bought SmartVillage from Multichoice in late 2015 to make inroads in the fibre to the home (FTTH) market.

SmartVillage has been rebranded into Supersonic.

Supersonic has been placed under new management and it employs 120 people, of which 25 are fully trained technicians.

The company is an independently run company.

It is committed to delivering the best customer experience in a fibre market still being held back by a general lack of service delivery and customer satisfaction.

“We believe our solution will ensure more people can benefit and we plan to become the number one ISP in the country in 5 years,” says Supersonic CEO, Calvin Collett.

Supersonic CEO, Calvin Collett

Supersonic has an initial target of connecting 25% of the fibre market, which comprises 800,000 homes but is projected to pass as many as 2.2 million by 2022.

“We are focusing on the main metros first but will be expanding this further and where we can’t deliver a service, we will also assist in providing access to MTN’s fixed-line LTE service,” says Collett.

The company aims to differentiate iotself by focusing on consumers.“Complaints of too much complexity, network instability and poor after-sales services continue to plague the fibre industry and we aim to change that,” says Collett.

Infographic – Fibre Made Easy

“Our focus is on meeting customer needs and expectations by using skilled technicians trained by us, innovative user-friendly apps and before and after-sale service expertise and channels to ensure customers receive speedy service off the back of the country’s fastest and most stable network.”

To differentiate itself from the 47 ISPs already existing in the SA market, the new proposition is hinged on simplicity, reliability, stability and agility. A simple web-based five-step sign-up process is followed by the guarantee of a call-back in under 30 minutes – the system is currently working at call-back rates of as little as 15 minutes.

MTN’s fixed-line LTE solution will still be made available to those in areas where fibre may not yet be available.

“In our view, fibre should not have any limitation in terms of capacity so our solution is uncapped with no shaping. Fibre, of course, is already much faster than traditional copper-based lines and is free from the risks of damage caused by rain, or theft,” he says. – lourie@techfinancials.co.za